Short Term Technical Preparation

Question 0

What 4 factors most influence the selection of playing kit and equipment?

Answer 0

Climate - temperature, humidity and wind
Playing surface
Indoor or outdoor
Protection/ reducing injury

Question 1

What does the term technical cover in terms of short term preparation?

Answer 1

Kit and equipment
Ergogenic aids
Reasons for holding pre match camps and pre game rituals

Question 2

Give two contrasting reasons as to why swimmers may ‘shave down’ before a race

Answer 2

It improves their aerodynamics

It’s a ritual, allowing them to prepare mentally for performance

Question 3

Describe how environmental factors may influence a teams tactics

Answer 3

If a team is playing on a bobbly ground, they may resort to playing the ball in the air as opposed to passing it around.
If a team is playing a far better team, they may actually reduce the width of the pitch, to give them less room to play on.

Question 4

Describe the cultural factors that may influence short term technical preparation

Answer 4

The amount of home support, pressure from media may lead to a team preparing differently. For example at home they may be pressured to play more exiting football

Question 5

What are the key climatic that teams and performance need to consider in short term technical prep?

Answer 5

Temperature and UV exposure
Humidity
Wind

Question 6

Describe how temperature and UV exposure influences preparation

Answer 6

If temperature is higher or lower than the body’s normal temp, then the performer will gain or lose heat. In colder weather, performers can prepare by practising in more layers

Question 7

How does humidity influence short term preparation?

Answer 7

Humidity affects how much sweat can evaporate and so transfer heat from the body. For players to prepare for high humidity conditions, they need to acclimatise

Question 8

Describe how wind influences preparation

Answer 8

Wind can increase rate of sweat evaporation, causing a direct cooling effect on performer, making them need to wear more clothing, worsening performance. This can effect whether to bat or bowl first in cricket for example, due to the wind affecting the flight of the ball

Question 9

How long does it typically take to acclimatise?

Answer 9

5 to 10 days

Question 10

Describe the changes to the body following acclimatisation

Answer 10

Body becomes more efficient at thermoregulation. Sweat response works earlier and at a greater level. Blood volume increases, performer absorbs more water from their diet.

Question 11

What are the 3 general benefits gained from wearing compression clothing?

Answer 11

Injury prevention
Performance enhancement
Speeding up of recovery

Question 12

How does compression clothing speed up recovery?

Answer 12

It helps to increase the blood flow to the areas covered, and has a positive impact on venous return

Question 13

What is venous return?

Answer 13

The amount of blood returning to the heart

Question 14

In what type of performance activity have compression clothing shown to be most beneficial?

Answer 14

Anaerobic performance

Question 15

How does the compression clothing increase the blood flow?

Answer 15

It puts a constant pressure on the working muscles, stimulating more blood flow, meaning more oxygen and nutrients, and faster waste removal

Question 16

How should compression clothing be used post match?

Answer 16

Should be worn for up to two hours after, to help the body remove waste and restock energy

Question 17

How do ice vests lower body temperature?

Answer 17

As the body temp rises, it is diverted from the working muscles to the skin. The ice vests cool the blood, allowing it to return to working muscles faster

Question 18

Give an example of compression clothing being used to success

Answer 18

Loughborough and Canterbury made a new high tech shirt for rugby World Cup, which was found to add a 2.7% increase in power. South Africa wore it and won, England didn’t and lost

Question 19

In what 3 areas are ergogenic aids used?

Answer 19

To enhance physical power
To enhance mental strength
To enhance mechanical edge

Question 20

In what ways do ergogenic aids enhance physical power

Answer 20

Increase amount of muscle tissue used to generate energy
Increase rate of metabolic processes that generate energy within the muscles
Increase the delivery of energy supplies to the muscle
Counteract the accumulation of substances in the body that interfere with optimal energy production

Question 21

In what ways do ergogenic aids enhance mental strength

Answer 21

Increase psychological processes that maximise energy production
Decrease factors that interfere with optimal psychological functioning

Question 22

In what ways do ergogenic aids enhance mechanical edge?

Answer 22

Improving human body biomechanics to increase efficiency by decreasing body mass, especially body fat
Improve human body biomechanics to increase stability by increasing body mass, primarily muscle mass

Question 23

What are ergogenic aids?

Answer 23

Substances or devices that enhance energy production, use or recovery, and provide athletes with a competitive advantage

Question 24

What are the 4 types of ergogenic aid?

Answer 24

Mechanical aids
Chemical aids
Physiological aids
Psychological aids

Question 25

What are mechanical ergogenic aids? Give an example.

Answer 25

Use or technology or devices. Could be as simple as a heart rate monitor, or as complex as a hypoxic chamber

Question 26

What are chemical aids? Give examples.

Answer 26

Either naturally occurring products, such as ginseng, or man made supplements such as creatine

Question 27

What are physiological aids?

Answer 27

Techniques such as sports massage and acupuncture

Question 28

What are psychological aids?

Answer 28

Include use of imagery, music and hypnosis

Question 29

What are supplements?

Answer 29

Legal additions to an athletes diet, because the sporting bodies don’t feel their use is harmful.

Question 30

What are the 3 main factors for a ergogenic substance to be classed as illegal by WADA?

Answer 30

Physically enhance the performance of the athlete
Be detrimental to the athletes health
Conflict with the general spirit of the sport

Question 31

Why is it unclear whether drug taking has increased or not?

Answer 31

Although there have been more people found out, this may simply be due to the testing systems being enhanced. Also many athletes claim claim that all they took was diet pills or cough medicine

Question 32

Give an example of drug taking being ‘worth it’ in sport

Answer 32

Ben Johnson rose to fame by winning gold in 1988. Although he was eventually banned from competition for several years, and had the medal stripped, he made money from his fame for years.

Question 33

Give examples of the difficulty in classing what’s illegal and what’s not in terms of drugs and supplements.

Answer 33

A performer can legally take ginseng, even though it has advantageous effects, but can’t take steroids. They can train at high altitude to develop the efficiency of the blood system, but can’t blood dope. There’s a very fine line between legality and illegality

Question 34

What is blood doping?

Answer 34

Practise of boosting number of red blood cells in circulation, to enhance athletic performance

Question 35

Give an example to show how wealth has allowed richer countries to get away with drug taking

Answer 35

At Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, around 35 athletes were found to be drug taking. However, they were mostly Eastern European, and why they were caught is attributed to them not knowing how to avoid detection, and not being able to afford more sophisticated drugs

Question 36

What is a holding camp?

Answer 36

A single base camp, used in the weeks immediately prior to the start of the games. Athletes can train in conditions very similar to that of the host city, helping them acclimatise, focus, and maximise performance

Question 37

What are preparation camps?

Answer 37

A training base using the facilities to be used in the holding camps, enabling athletes and performers to familiarise themselves with the location, used up to a year before the competition.

Question 38

Give an example of where performers had to adjust their training programme to suit competition needs. (2007 rugby World Cup)

Answer 38

In 2007, the semi finals and final were due to take place at 9pm local time, so England adjusted their training schedule to mainly being between 7 and 10pm, to replicate conditions and get used to the strange kick off times.